It is quite impressive to see the arguments on some posts in favor of Argentina's government policies.
They reflect a problem seeing very often in LA including Mexico where I am from: Politicians adjust the facts so they fit their ideology, instead of adjusting their ideology to the facts.
It is clear Argentina policies are increasingly similar to those of Venezuela's Chavez, however without oil wealth. If those policies have failed in Venezuela, why would they work in Argentina?
Fictional economic statistics, government censoring of the free press and pork money to support political allies is a sure recipe to create a Banana Republic. Is that what the people of Argentina want?

If Margaret Thatcher was your president and her orthodox economic measures caused you and millions of others to be unemployed, would the satisfaction of a balanced budget pay your bills or feed your family? You like many others would most likely vote for Kirchner, Chavez or Satan if they enabled you to find work and live decently.

You represent well the middle class Latin American with an inferiority complex. You claim politicians of the area "adjust the facts to fit their ideology". I expect you think that "first world politicians" don't do that, they're much more honest, right?
Please grow up, if you want to see true Alice in Wonderland scenarios, just look around at Europe and the US, where a high proportion of the banking system is insolvent and everybody tries to pretend otherwise.
Your attempt to compare Argentina with Venezuela is ridiculous and "the censoring of the free press" argument is downright infantile. The vast majority of TV and newspaper coverage in the Argentine is hostile to the government.
If you don't like the Argentine government statistics, look at independent trade associations numbers: shopping centers sales, car sales, electricity consumption, mobile and broadband penetration, etc. If you do that, you'll find that the Argentine economy has undergone a remarkable transformation over the last 8 years.
Finally, Banana Republics evolve when corrupt middle class Latin Americans abdicate their duties ans sell out their nation's resources for peanuts. No chance of that happening in the Argentine.

Argentina is a country which has defaulted on his debt , not only once, but several times in their history. They accumulated a debt pile of some 10 to 20 thousand millions dollars since 201, and they continue to go by, as if nothing happens. And on top, pretend to be right.Dishonesty is the main characteristic assigned to them in LA.
Buenos Aires , back in the 50;s and 60;s was a wonderfull town, and you could see the well being, coming from the meat export everywhere. Now you see misery , even in downtown (people sleeping on the streets, or asking for money). Populism is still at home in that country and , even with an educated population, they still believe that they are the best in South Amercia. Globalization will bring problems to them if they do not react, and start working with the real numbers and not the fiction the goverment publish.
Reality is totally missing over there.

Al of what you say is absolutely true. However, companies, people and countries do not default on debt as a whim. or as policy. It is the result of trying every possible way to avoid it until there is no other way out. Another method of default or controlled default is to devalue your country's currency on a massive scale, such as what the UK did in the late 1940's and early 1950s when it owed Argentina at least $2 Billion USD. Granted they did not do this to "screw Argentina", but the fact remains that they must have tried every possible way to avoid bankruptcy, and unfortunately in the world of economics, few are the countries that have avoided debt default or bankruptcy proceedings but at such a great cost that it may have been cheaper to do so - like American Airlines this past week. The UK economy is alive in name only due to the banking industry that attracts depositors from all over the world. Almost every good sold there is Made In China, and its current account deficit is covered only by massive borrowing, that will one day have to be repaid. It is only a matter of time before the UK and the USA will have to admit that with massive unemployment, diminished industry, and profits from non-productive speculative trade will not be enough to sustain their economies in the long run. I give the UK 5 years at most before the next crisis hits them such as the current one in the US.

"Dishonesty is the main characteristic assigned to them in Latin America".

So you have the temerity to speak for Latin America, do you? Not only are you childishly prejudiced but - judging by the rest of your commentary - you're a pretty incoherent commentator. Now Mr. Perfect, perhaps you'd like to inform us all which earthly paradise has the good fortune to boast you as a citizen?

Nino, many southamerican countries HAD to default on their public debts. This is because imperialist countries, like the US: 1)First established dictators in the region 2)made them borrow incredible amounts of money perpetuate an economic form of control. (Argentina´s debt went from 7,8000 US million in 1975 to 45,000 US million in 1983 when democracy returned)
It shocks me that you are not mentioning the current record low debt to GDP level of 40% when you argue about the county's economy.
You are right however about the lack of reality on public figures such as inflation.

Argentines bought dollars and they put their dollars in European, North American banks. The Military government's accumulated debt was insurmountable and the government was easlily coerced to sell assets. The money raised was not enough to service the debt. After the devaluation of the Peso the Argentine middle-class is a less influential, smaller group of South Americans.

I am from Argentina, and I think you are completely right. The main problem in Argentina is that people believe there are no problems. It´s like an "everything is ok" mentality mixed with arrogance and laziness. Thats why nobody bothers if the government tries to hide inflation from the public, is structuraly corrupted while 30% of the population lives in poverty and goes after those few journalist that denounce them; because many people know -- and some people even admit -- that they would do the same if they were in the same position.

Agreed, people who pay for this magazine don't seem to be too smart. The target customer base of the economist are IQ100+ wannabes.

If we equate Argentina's total growth over the last 8 years versus the economist expected growth, then this magazine ought to answer for about a 70% difference.

People at The Economist, If you are wrong once it's OK,
twice... maybe,
three times.. wait a minute
4 times.. maybe you should revise your methodology
5 times... you lie to us and you know it
6 times... you know you are lying and you do it because you have an agenda
7 times... you have an agenda and you are being paid to do lie despite all the embarrassment.
8 times... all of the above plus you don't have a lot of respect for your readers.

Perfect description of these backward groups. But fortunately some of them are already becoming aware of their mistakes and finding no other way out of the very same system they have created, finally decide to commit suicide. That's great, 'cause it saves us from takking them to court in the near future. Don't you think so?

If indeed there are elements of this article that point to legitimate macroeconomic concerns Argentina faces, it is worth looking back at the coverage of The Economist over the last 8 yrs. This publication has been predicting doomsday in the country more or less since 2004. Why? The country did not follow the prescriptions for austerity and financialization that The Economist has been recommending for years, the results of which are plain to see in Europe and the US today. Frankly, the entire worldview of this magazine has been so deeply discredited that it shocks me that anyone should take it seriously, particularly those with global investments.

After repudiating its debts, the Argentinian economy has recovered, even boomed, but from a very low base and with internal funding for investment. The problem is that to really grow Argentina needs to access the world capital markets and it cannot do so as these markets remember what happened and will not lend except very short term and with very high interest rates. Effectively the economy is slowly stagnating. Christina Kirchner knows that the prosperity is all a sham is imposing capital controls and 'borrowing' from private pension funds, and imposing new taxes etc etc just so as to be able to pretend all is well for as long as possible.